4 November 2026
Immense stationification
Toyama station area
As I may have mentioned, I originally came to Toyama in October 2016. Research tells me that the Shinkansen (bullet train) first came to Toyama in March 2015. The impact on re-centering the city has been immense.
When I was last here the station area was dead, and the old city area with the covered shopping streets was vibrant, now 10 years later, it is the complete opposite.
This is a common occurrence when the bullet train comes to town, I have observed it several times before, and now I plan to go to train university and do my thesis on this topic, Japan Rails reign of terror must be stopped.
In other news, it started raining on my walk back to the hotel, tomorrow is not a hiking day, please do all your raining tomorrow.
Night castle. I think it is more of a government building with a park around it, but it still looks good enough lit up for a photo.
The station area is all new and modern as I spoke about above, with people.
An old pink tram. You will not be able to tell but after taking the night castle photo I had set my camera in a strange way and not realised.
Here is the actual station, in much of it's glory.
The trams go right under it. It is a bit of a pedestrian nightmare so when they are on the move, very slowly, there are a lot of flashing red lights.
Out the back of the station was a ghost town the last time I was here, I think this building is new, it even has a few restaurants in it.
Station from the back side. Trams everywhere still.
Blue fountains are the thing these days, probably to advertise electric cars.
And finally, I found ramen. Actually there is a lot of ramen in the area including Toyama style black ramen which I hope to have before I leave. Sadly the black ramen shop was too busy tonight, so I had... red ramen. It was not great but it was cheap and hot.